Common Wealth Award | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Outstanding achievement(s) in dramatic arts, literature, science, invention, mass communications, public service, government, and sociology. |
Country | United States |
Presented by | PNC Bank |
First awarded | 1979 |
The Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service (or Common Wealth Awards) were created under the will of the late Ralph Hayes, an influential American business executive and philanthropist. Hayes conceived the awards to reward and encourage the best of human performance worldwide. Hayes served on the board of directors of PNC Bank, Delaware's predecessor banks from 1935 to 1965. Through the Common Wealth Awards, he sought to recognize outstanding achievement in eight disciplines: dramatic arts, literature, science, invention, mass communications, public service, government and sociology. The awards also provide an incentive for people to make future contributions to the world community.
Hayes worked in the Office of the United States Secretary of War in Washington, D.C., the motion picture industry, publishing, banking, and for the Coca-Cola Company. For 35 years, he was a Coca-Cola executive; he was secretary-treasurer, vice president, and as a director of Coca-Cola International. He was on the board of directors of the Bank of Delaware (now PNC Bank) from 1943 to 1965, having previously been a Director of its predecessor, The Equitable Trust Company, from 1935 to 1943. Hayes also had a long career of public service. He was a chairman of the James Foundation, president of Community Funds, Inc., and a longtime director of The New York Community Trust. He died in 1977 at the age of 82, leaving the Common Wealth Awards as part of his charitable legacy. [1]
Each recipient of the Common Wealth Award receives a $50,000 prize. [2] It is presented at an annual, invitation-only, black-tie dinner hosted at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.
In their 39-year history, the Common Wealth Awards have conferred $6 million in prize money to 201 honorees of international renown. [2] The awards are funded by the Common Wealth Trust.
Since 2000, more than sixty Delaware high school students have met and talked to the winning world leaders through the Common Wealth Award Writing Contest. [2] Four winners of the writing contest and their parents or guardians are invited each year to the Common Wealth Awards ceremony, where the honorees are recognized for their lifetime achievement. As time allows, students are often able to talk directly with the winners.
Contest winners are publicly acknowledged at the Common Wealth Awards ceremony and receive a framed picture of themselves taken with the honorees.
Year | Honoree | Discipline | Claim to Fame |
---|---|---|---|
1979 | Laurence, Lord Olivier United Kingdom | Dramatic Arts | British actor and founding director of the British National Theatre. |
Joseph Papp United States | Dramatic Arts | Influential American theatrical director and producer. | |
Jay W. Forrester United States | Science & Invention | Prominent scientist who made outstanding contributions to digital computer technology. | |
Charles J. Plank India | Science & Invention | Chemist and inventor credited with inventing the first commercially applicable apparatus for the breaking of hydrocarbons. | |
Edward J. Rosinski United States | Science & Invention | Chemical engineer and inventor credited with making significant breakthroughs in the technology of hydrocarbon conversions. | |
Kingsley Davis United States | Sociology | American sociologist and demographer who coined the terms population explosion and zero population growth. | |
Robert Merton United States | Sociology | Influential sociologist recognized for coining terms such as, self-fulfilling prophecy and role models. | |
1980 | Peter Brook United Kingdom | Dramatic Arts | |
Agnes de Mille United States | Dramatic Arts | Famed American dancer and choreographer. | |
Gabriel García Márquez Colombia | Literature | Nobel Prize-winning author and a pioneer of the Latin American Boom. | |
Robert Penn Warren United States | Literature | American poet, novelist, and literary critic; cofounder of New Criticism. | |
Clair McCollough United States | Mass Communications | Radio and television executive, as well as longtime officer of the National Association of Broadcasters | |
Lowell Thomas United States | Mass Communications | American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known for publicizing the story of Lawrence of Arabia. | |
James Hillier Canada | Science & Invention | Physicist and inventor who assisted in the development of an early, commercially successful electron microscope for RCA. | |
Lewis H. Sarett United States | Science & Invention | ||
James Coleman United States | Sociology | ||
Otis Duncan United States | Sociology | One of the most influential sociologists in history, instrumental in transforming mainstream American sociology. | |
1981 | Harold Pinter United Kingdom | Dramatic Arts | |
Tennessee Williams United States | Dramatic Arts | Major American playwright of the twentieth century. | |
Nadine Gordimer South Africa | Literature | ||
Milan Kundera Czech Republic | Literature | ||
Walter Cronkite United States | Mass Communications | ||
Julian Goodman United States | Mass Communications | ||
Howard S. Becker United States | Sociology | ||
Peter Blau Austria | Sociology | ||
1982 | Harold Prince United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning producer and director; co-artistic director of the New Phoenix Repertory Company. |
Wright Morris United States | Literature | American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and photographer. | |
Vincent Wasilewski United States | Mass Communications | President of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). | |
Bell Laboratories United States | Science & Invention | Credited with the discovery of the Fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). | |
Charles Tilly United States | Sociology | ||
1983 | Hume Cronyn Canada (d. United States) | Dramatic Arts | |
Jessica Tandy United Kingdom | Dramatic Arts | ||
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick United States | Government | ||
Christopher Isherwood United Kingdom | Literature | ||
César Milstein Argentina | Science & Invention | ||
Kenneth Lane Thompson United States | Science & Invention | ||
William Sewell United States | Sociology | ||
1984 | Athol Fugard South Africa | Dramatic Arts | |
Stephen Sondheim United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning stage musical and film composer & lyricist. | |
Eudora Welty United States | Literature | ||
Robert Phelan Langlands Canada | Science & Invention | ||
Joseph Rubinfeld United States | Invention | Instrumental in licensing the original anticancer line of products for Bristol-Meyers, as well as development of amoxicillin. | |
Matilda White Riley United States | Sociology | Renowned sociologist and Daniel B. Fayerweather Professor of Political Economy and Sociology Emerita. | |
1985 | Zelda Fichandler United States | Dramatic Arts | Famed cofounder and producing director of the Arena Stage in Washington. |
Max Frisch Switzerland | Literature | ||
Candy Lightner United States | Public Service | The organizer and founding president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). | |
Alain Aspect France | Science & Invention | ||
Delft Hydraulics Laboratory Netherlands | Science & Invention | ||
Peter H. Rossi United States | Sociology | Prominent sociologist, best known for documenting homelessness in the 1980s. | |
1986 | Samuel Beckett Ireland | Dramatic Arts | |
John Ashbery United States | Literature | Award-winning American poet. | |
Norman Cousins United States | Mass Communications | ||
Leon H. Sullivan United States | Public Service | ||
Jet Propulsion Laboratory United States | Science & Invention | NASA research center which specializes in building and operating uncrewed spacecraft. | |
Kenneth H. Olsen United States | Science & Invention | American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 with a colleague. | |
John A. Clausen United States | Sociology | ||
1987–88 | Lloyd Richards United States (b. Canada) | Dramatic Arts | |
Andrei Voznesensky Russia | Literature | ||
Gordon Parks United States | Mass Communications | Famed American photographer, pianist, film director, and novelist. | |
N.T. Pete Shields United States | Public Service | Cofounder of Handgun Control, a Washington, D.C.-based citizens' gun control lobbying organization | |
John B. MacChesney United States | Science & Invention | Best known for key inventions in the commercial manufacture of optical fiber. | |
Robin M. Williams, Jr. United States | Sociology | ||
1989 | Jennifer Tipton United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning American lighting designer. |
George P. Shultz United States | Government | Former Secretary of Labor, Secretary of the Treasury, and head of the Office of Management and Budget. | |
Toni Morrison United States | Literature | Nobel Prize-winning author, editor, and professor. | |
David Brinkley United States | Mass Communications | Emmy nominated television newscaster and host of This Week with David Brinkley from 1982–1997. | |
Leroy E. Hood United States | Science & Invention | American biologist who helped to decode the human genome. | |
Alice S. Rossi United States | Sociology | Cofounder of the National Organization for Women; 74th president of the American Sociological Association. | |
1990 | Jerome Robbins United States | Dramatic Arts | Academy Award-winning film director and choreographer. |
Aharon Appelfeld Israel (b. Romania) | Literature | One of Israel's foremost living Hebrew-language authors. | |
David Broder United States | Mass Communications | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, talk show pundit, and university professor. | |
Jaime Escalante Bolivia | Public Service | ||
J.C.R. Licklider United States | Science & Invention | Renowned for his work on the human-computer dialogue, time sharing, virtual memory, and resource sharing. | |
Mirra Komarovsky Russia | Sociology | ||
1991 | James Earl Jones United States | Dramatic Arts | |
Paul A. Volcker United States | Government | Former chairman of the Federal Reserve. | |
Adrienne Rich United States | Literature | ||
Sebastião Salgado Brazil | Mass Communications | Respected photojournalist and Special Representative for UNICEF. | |
Roger N. Beachy United States | Science & Invention | American biologist and founder of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. | |
Nathan Keyfitz Canada | Sociology | Responsible for important work regarding formal demography and population projections. | |
1992 | Arthur Miller United States | Dramatic Arts | |
Warren E. Burger United States | Government | ||
James A. Michener United States | Literature | ||
Ted Turner United States | Mass Communications | American media mogul and philanthropist. | |
Susan Solomon United States | Science & Invention | Demonstrated the first conclusive link between manmade CFCs and the ozone holes above Antarctica. | |
1993 | Julie Harris United States | Dramatic Arts | Three-time Emmy Award-winning and five-time Tony Award-winning actress of stage, screen, and television. |
John Updike United States | Literature | Prominent American novelist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic. | |
Jim Lehrer United States | Mass Communications | American journalist and anchor for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. | |
Jonas Salk United States | Public Service | World-renowned for his development of the polio vaccine. | |
Charles H. Townes United States | Science & Invention | Accomplishments range from helping ease the strain of everyday life to studying the origin of the universe. | |
1994 | August Wilson United States | Dramatic Arts | Prominent African-American playwright. |
Henry A. Kissinger United States | Government | Former Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; founder of Kissinger Associates. | |
Larry King United States | Mass Communications | Award-winning television and radio broadcaster; host of CNN's Larry King Live . | |
Jacques-Yves Cousteau France | Public Service | Explorer, ecologist, scientist, photographer, and researcher who invented SCUBA and pioneered unaided deep sea diving. | |
Leland H. Hartwell United States | Science & Invention | Widely recognized pioneer in the field of yeastgenetics and cancer research. | |
1995 | Jane Alexander United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. |
William Styron United States | Literature | Novelist who explored difficult historical and moral questions. | |
Charles Kuralt United States | Mass Communications | Award-winning American journalist, best known for his long career with CBS. | |
James & Sarah Brady United States | Public Service | Influential members of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. | |
Karen Uhlenbeck United States | Science & Invention | Helped in the understanding of the fundamental properties of matter in the universe. | |
1996 | Jason Robards United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning film and television actor. |
Derek Walcott Saint Lucia | Literature | Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, writer, visual artist, and theatre & art critic. | |
Ken Burns United States | Mass Communications | Award-winning documentary filmmaker. | |
Eunice Kennedy Shriver United States | Public Service | Founder of the Special Olympics. | |
Andrew Wiles United Kingdom | Science & Invention | Solved Fermat's Last Theorem, an equation that had perplexed mathematicians for centuries. | |
1997 | Seamus Heaney Ireland | Literature | Nobel Prize-winning poet, writer, and lecturer. |
Michael E. DeBakey United States | Science & Invention | Internationally recognized pioneer in the field of cardiovascular research and surgery. | |
Jane Goodall United Kingdom | Public Service | World-renowned for her 45-year study of chimpanzee social and family life. | |
Edward Albee United States | Dramatic Arts | Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary American playwright. | |
James H. Clark United States | Mass Communications | Prolific entrepreneur and former computer scientist; cofounder of Netscape Communications Corporation. | |
1998 | Christopher Plummer Canada | Dramatic Arts | Actor of stage, screen, and television during his five-decade career. |
Saul Bellow United States (b. Canada) | Literature | Nobel Prize-winning novelist. | |
Bill Moyers United States | Mass Communications | Veteran journalist who worked for both CBS and PBS during his nearly four-decade career. | |
Betty Ford United States | Public Service | Founder of the Betty Ford Center, a drug and alcohol dependency treatment center located in Rancho Mirage, CA. | |
Stephanie Kwolek United States | Science & Invention | Was responsible for the creation and discovery of Kevlar during her time at the DuPont Company. | |
1999 | Dr. Louis Miller United States | Science & Invention | Biologist who has made vast contributions to malaria research and other widespread tropical diseases. |
John Irving United States | Literature | Bestselling American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. | |
Robert MacNeil Canada | Mass Communications | Former television news anchor and journalist of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report . | |
Lawrence Eagleburger United States | Government | Former Secretary of State and diplomat. | |
Julie Taymor United States | Dramatic Arts | American director of Broadway theatre and film. | |
2000 | Desmond Tutu South Africa | Public Service | Anglican archbishop, international human rights leader, and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. |
E. L. Doctorow United States | Literature | Foremost American novelist acclaimed for his lyrical, breakthrough fiction. | |
Christiane Amanpour United Kingdom | Mass Communications | CNN chief foreign correspondent and influential reporter of global crises. | |
Robert Ballard United States | Science & Invention | Marine scientist, pioneer of deep ocean exploration, and undersea archaeologist. | |
Mikhail Baryshnikov Russia | Dramatic Arts | Legendary dancer and icon of classical ballet and modern dance. | |
2001 | Morgan Freeman United States | Dramatic Arts | Veteran actor acclaimed for his classic, commanding roles on stage, screen, and television. |
J. Craig Venter United States | Science & Invention | Biochemist, entrepreneur, and gene pioneer who succeeded in unlocking the human genetic code. | |
James Nachtwey United States | Mass Communications | Renowned photojournalist who has chronicled the human anguish of war, genocide, and famine worldwide. | |
Philip Roth United States | Literature | Pulitzer Prize winner regarded as a literary giant among America's postwar generation of writers. | |
Dr. William Magee & Kathleen Magee United States | Public Service | Founders of Operation Smile, which aids children with facial deformities around the world. | |
2002 | Julie Andrews United Kingdom | Dramatic Arts | World-renowned performer whose stardom spans movies, theater, television, and concert hall. |
Carlos Fuentes Mexico | Literature | Preeminent writer of fiction and political commentary, and a leading cultural force in modern Latin America. | |
Lonnie Thompson & Ellen Mosley-Thompson United States | Science & Invention | Researchers who have tracked Earth's ancient climate history and global warming. | |
George Mitchell United States | Government | Former U.S. Senate majority leader and peace mediator for Northern Ireland and the Middle East. | |
Fred Rogers United States | Mass Communications | Children's television icon; creator and host of the critically acclaimed Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . | |
2003 | Sam Donaldson United States | Mass Communications | Veteran television journalist and former chief White House correspondent for ABC News. |
Bob Dole United States | Government | Former U.S. Senate majority leader and influential voice of the Republican Party. | |
Susan Stroman United States | Dramatic Arts | Broadway's most celebrated director-choreographer. | |
Joyce Carol Oates United States | Literature | One of America's most significant and inventive contemporary writers. | |
Dean Kamen United States | Science & Invention | Renowned inventor of breakthrough medical and transportation devices. | |
2004 | Christopher Reeve United States | Public Service | Renowned actor and America's leading advocate for people with paralysis and other disabilities. |
Meryl Streep United States | Dramatic Arts | Legendary actress and Hollywood icon, considered the greatest film star of her generation. | |
Stanley Prusiner, M.D. United States | Science & Invention | Pioneering researcher and Nobel Prize-winner who discovered the deadly protein linked to mad-cow disease. | |
Isabel Allende Chile | Literature | The most widely read and renowned Latin American woman writer in the world. | |
Andrea Mitchell United States | Mass Communications | Leading broadcast journalist and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. | |
2005 | Gen. Colin L. Powell United States | Government | Former Secretary of State and respected leader, diplomat, and soldier. |
David Mamet United States | Dramatic Arts | Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Hollywood screenwriter, and preeminent dramatist. | |
Tim Berners-Lee United Kingdom | Mass Communications | Visionary inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web consortium. | |
Amy Tan United States | Literature | Best-selling novelist whose stories explore family ties, heritage, and the Asian-American experience. | |
Kip Thorne United States | Science & Invention | Foremost American researcher of black holes and gravitational waves. | |
2006 | John Glenn United States | Government | Former U.S. Senator, astronaut, and heroic pioneer of American space exploration. |
HM Queen Noor of Jordan Jordan | Public Service | A leading voice for global peace-building, human rights, and conflict recovery issues. | |
Mike Nichols United States | Dramatic Arts | Preeminent and award-winning director of stage and screen. | |
Rita Dove United States | Literature | Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and two-term Poet Laureate of the United States. | |
Anderson Cooper United States | Mass Communications | Leading broadcast journalist and CNN news anchor of Anderson Cooper 360° . | |
2007 | Sidney Poitier United States | Dramatic Arts | Academy Award-winning actor and cinematic trailblazer. |
Aleksander Kwaśniewski Poland | Government | Former two-term president of the Republic of Poland; cofounder of the Social Democratic Party. | |
Cokie Roberts United States | Mass Communications | Veteran broadcast journalist; best-selling author; political analyst for ABC News; and NPR senior news analyst. | |
Ian McEwan United Kingdom | Literature | Acclaimed and award-winning British novelist, short-story, and screenwriter. | |
2008 | Glenn Close United States | Dramatic Arts | Celebrated actress of stage, screen, and television. |
John Howard Australia | Government | Four-term prime minister of Australia. | |
Ann Curry United States (b. Guam) | Mass Communications | News anchor of NBC's Today ; coanchor of Dateline NBC . | |
James E. Hansen United States | Science | Preeminent climate scientist; director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. | |
2009 | Buzz Aldren United States | Science | Astronaut and lunar explorer. |
Doris Kearns Goodwin United States | Mass Communications | Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. | |
Don DeLillo United States | Literature | Author, playwright and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. | |
Kevin Spacey United States | Dramatic Arts | Academy Award-winning actor and artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre Company. | |
2010 | Annie Leibovitz United States | Mass Communications | Legendary portrait photographer responsible for some of the most iconic images of the last four decades. |
Laura Linney United States | Dramatic Arts | Award-winning actress of stage, film, and theatre. Best known for her roles in Love Actually and HBO miniseries "John Adams." | |
Greg Mortenson United States | Public Service | Humanitarian, writer. Co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and founder of the charity Pennies for Peace. | |
Salman Rushdie India | Literature | Booker Prize-winning novelist and essayist. Played a major role in the development of Indian English literature. | |
2011 | Russell Banks United States | Literature | Internationally acclaimed novelist, poet, and short story writer. |
Cherie Blair United Kingdom | Public Service | Noted human rights lawyer and women's rights activist. | |
Bill Richardson United States | Government | Thirtieth Governor of New Mexico, former U.S. Energy Secretary, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Congressman. | |
George Will United States | Mass Communications | America's foremost political commentator and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. | |
2012 [3] | Wolf Blitzer United States | Mass Communications | |
Madeleine Albright United States | Government | ||
Kenneth Cole United States | Public Service | ||
Judith Jamison United States | Dramatic Arts | ||
2013 [4] | Alan Alda United States | Dramatic Arts | |
David McCullough United States | Literature | ||
Jane Pauley United States | Mass Communications | ||
Martin Sheen United States | Public Service | ||
2014 [5] | Bob Costas United States | Mass Communications | |
Anjelica Huston United States | Dramatic Arts | ||
Mariano Rivera Panama | Public Service | ||
2015 [6] | Jon Bon Jovi United States | Public Service | |
Edward Norton United States | Public Service | ||
Jimmy Wales United States | Mass Communications | ||
2016 [7] | Mandy Patankin United States | Dramatic Arts | |
Bob Schieffer United States | Mass Communications | ||
Elizabeth Smart United States | Public Service | ||
2017 [8] | Charles Grodin United States | Dramatic Arts | Distinguished commentator and storyteller. |
Dr. Mae Jemison United States | Science | Esteemed engineer, physician and NASA astronaut; the first African-American woman to travel in space. | |
Marlo Thomas United States | Public Service | Social activist and leading national advocate for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. | |
2018 [2] | Joe Biden United States | Government | American politician and former Vice President of the United States. |
Ron Chernow United States | Literature | Preeminent American historic biographer. | |
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. United States | Sociology | Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, distinguished filmmaker, literary scholar and cultural critic. | |
2019 [9] | Diane Keaton United States | Dramatic Arts | Academy Award-winning and Tony nominated actor |
Peggy Noonan United States | Mass Communications | presidential speechwriter, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist | |
Captain Sully Sullenberger United States | Public Service | American hero, safety expert, and author |
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